When you start pointing fake plastic guns at civilians like you’re Sam Fisher, it’s not going to end well.

Police in New Zealand had to be called in after a man ran about the district of Viaduct Basin in Auckland pointing a weapon at people, who had to take cover as he was covering the area and aiming the weapon.

Authorities soon turned up and figured out that the person running about was actually a PR rep promoting Splinter Cell: Conviction as viral marketing, but were still not pleased at what had gone on.

A PR firm which represents Ubisoft in the country, Monaco Corporation, apologized for what had happened before pointing the blame at another company which it had organized it with, stating the move “was just marketing gone wrong.”

Splinter Cell: Conviction is out now on Xbox 360, with an April 29 release for PC. Read our interview with its creative director Maxime Béland here. First 20 minutes of it is here.

http://www.vg247.com/2010/04/19/police-stops-splinter-cell-pr-stunt-in-new-zealand/

Kotaku

Wow that was a terrible idea for a PR stunt.

Well we're talking about it, aren't we? :P

you kind of call cops in advance if you're gonna do that.

like "hey we're not actually invading the country, it's a scene for a movie, you can call off the bombing run"

True I guess it had the desired effect Still I think it was in bad taste.

You are right: now I'm gonna get the game...

...the day it comes to PS3, what might probably be never.

Oh, things would be nice if they also brought both Mass Effect games in a single Blu ray.

Well, if he had been shot, sales would have gone through the roof. So nice try, Ubi, but next time you should pull this sort of stunt in America. Our triggerhappy cops will get the job done.